29/10/2011
NEWS STORY
The Sauber F1 Team experienced a disappointing qualifying session ahead of the Formula One debut race in India. Both drivers had difficulties heating up the tyres to get them to work. Kamui Kobayashi also had bad luck with traffic, and both factors then resulted with him ending up 18th and dropping out after Q1. Team mate Sergio Perez made it into Q2, but considering the issues with tyre warm up and a grid penalty, which he received on Friday, the team decided not to sacrifice another set of fresh tyres in Q2. Yesterday Perez was penalised for ignoring yellow flags in the first free practice session. He finished qualifying in 17th position and will have to go back three positions on the grid.
Sergio Perez: "This was obviously a very bad qualifying for me. After our performance in the third free practice this morning we were clearly expecting to do better in qualifying. The key problem was that we couldn't switch on the tyres to get them really to work. Knowing this, and given the fact that I had the grid penalty from yesterday, we decided to put only the used tyres on again in Q2, as it was better to save the fresh ones for the race."
Kamui Kobayashi: "The pace of the car was certainly good enough for Q2, I was convinced about it and I also think our race performance should be alright. However, in qualifying it took me a lot of time to warm up the tyres, and then in the end I was unlucky. I had just started my final flying lap when Felipe (Massa) came out of the pit lane in front of me. Although there wasn't enough time left in the session for him to do another run he didn't give room. I am disappointed with today, but I will keep myself together and have a positive approach to the race. At least I have some fresh tyres left and this circuit offers opportunities for overtaking."
Monisha Kaltenborn, Chief Executive: "We are obviously disappointed about the result, especially after free practice went quite well. Today, the whole team was not able to extract the full potential out of the car. The good thing, however, is that both drivers have two sets of new soft tyres left, which will put them in a position to attack in tomorrow's race."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "Lately we have been falling into a difficult situation performance wise. Everyone in the team, in the factory and at the track has been working very hard to understand and fix these problems we have had since the last race. Despite having reviewed our approach quite a bit, so far it hasn't produced a significant improvement. We are definitely unhappy about the day. Still the race is tomorrow, and we will keep the motivation up and we will try to catch up as much possible."
Check out our India qualifying gallery, here.